Scientists pin whale conservation on new tags

Scientists in Western Australia are trailing a new form of tagging they hope will lead to greater conservation of whale sharks.

The researchers are monitoring the migratory pathways of the sharks.

Principal investigator Mark Meekan says he hopes to show the information to south-east asian communities to convince them not to hunt the sharks.

Dr Meekan says he would like to show them how to run a viable eco-tourism business.

"If we could show villages in Indonesia that these sharks are worth a lot more alive than dead then I think their future would be assured," he said.

"The key thing is that they have to know who we actually have to talk to.

"If you took your average Indonesian villager and showed him that by having a little ecotourism operation and swimming tourists with whale sharks, he could make a lot more money than say 10 cents a kilo of dead whale shark."